Arrow is the CWís flagship superhero show, the progenitor of The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. Really, since its inception Arrow has been a show of varying quality, but a lot better than what the CW did for superheroes back in the day. Now, how did Season 5 leave off?

Oh, right. That happened.

Season 5 was a roaring return to form, where Oliver had to do battle against Prometheus, a villain obsessed with exposing the darkness in Oliver and would spare no measure in torturing him as both a civilian and a vigilante. Ultimately, Oliver did not give into his darkness, but arguably Prometheus won anyway, as he gave Oliver an impossible choice. The fallout of that choice is about to come to light! Exciting stuff.

Since Season 5 was the fifth year after Oliver was stuck on the island, the flashbacks focused on how Oliver got back home, and also how he got tied up in the Russian mob. Since the show goes on to a season 6, no more flashbacks! At least ones that focus on Oliver and his bad wigs. This opens up the show to using flashbacks to develop more characters, dropping them altogether, or even using scenes from Season 1 to tie into the episodeís theme!

Now, the characters:

Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) - Our protagonist, mayor of Star City, super ripped, finally at peace with himself and his darkness. Still does the vigilante thing!

Thea Queen (Willa Holland) - Oliverís sister, trained by her father, who was Raís Al Ghul if you didnít know. Gave up the vigilante game and helps Oliver as his chief of staff. The show's breakout character, if you ask me. Went from whiny stereotype to kickass in two seasons!

Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) - Team Arrowís technical support, almost got married to Oliver in Season 4. Was in a wheelchair once, may still have feelings for Oliver? Accidentally stole Theaís apartment? Why donít we talk about that more?

Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum) - Codename Mr. Terrific, the other really smart guy in the building. Has a rad costume, sometimes inexplicably goes from cornrows to full afro from scene to scene. Cool guy though, hope he gets more to do this year.

Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez) - Codename Wild Dog, a real street tough. His costume actually has a vigilante feel, what with it being a hockey mask and jersey. Former military, really good with guns. Hope he gets full custody of his daughter, he could use a win.

Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy) - The successor to the Black Canary, Dinah Drake is a meta human who can actually do the scream thing, as opposed to it being just a device. She got little to do last season, but her character arc is just beginning. High hopes!

Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) - Not the good Laurel, but her evil doppleganger from Earth-2. Goes by Black Siren. Brought over to mess with Oliverís head, but she eventually ended up hanging around as another evil person. Thereís a Catwoman angle to her relationship with Oliver, Iím sure itíll get explored because the CW canít control itself. Katie Cassidy hams it up as an evil character, and itís a lot of fun to watch.

Also important, and obligatory for every DCCW thread.

Carlosologist fucked around with this message at Oct 11, 2017 around 06:24

Felicity is paraplegic and supported only by some kind of magic computer chip designed by Curtis.

I just started season 3, (I never want to hear the world MiRaKuRu ever loving again) and holy gently caress who the hell thought that making such a drastic change to a series regular like that was good. Cripes.

I just started season 3, (I never want to hear the world MiRaKuRu ever loving again) and holy gently caress who the hell thought that making such a drastic change to a series regular like that was good. Cripes.

Not to knock the show too much, but I've been trying to catch up with everything I missed (Since the original 2012ish ads feature a sexy torsoman made me fear it was a worse Smallville, or a better Greystoke) and marathoning episodes is a little draining. Contrast that with S2 Supergirl (regrettable decisions with dialogue surrounding Alex's coming out aside), which is pretty breezy and fun to watch a few episodes in a sitting. Maybe I'm hitting a broodlimit.

I still choose to believe that Curtis quietly made a fortune off of his miracle invention and he's been using that to quietly finance his vigilante career and super expensive T-Spheres. Just like everyone else who is privately wealthy.

Oliver and Thea: Rich from the Queen Industries buyoff and stock options.
Felicity: Rich from the Palmer Tech buyoff and stock options.
Curtis: Rich off his patents.
Diggle: Living on government black ops dime thanks to Lyla.
Rene: Ramen and spam.

No wonder Evelyn was so angry. Hopefully Dinah has some kind of good settlement or pension from her cop origin story.

Do Oliver and Thea still have their Queen Industries money? I thought there was a bit in season two or thereabouts where Thea has to sign some sort of memorandum to let them retain their assets and refuses.

My assumption has always been they're in that wealthy place where they have enough to live comfortably forever and buy lots of toys and fly back and forth to hellish islands but they can't like start another multi billion dollar business or anything.

Soooo... This is an unprecedented first, right? All four Arrowverse shows being pretty good at the same time?

First episodes are nothing to judge series on. Give it a few episodes to see where they go. Arrow looks to be keeping on from it's previous trajectory in Season 5 with more mortal and personal threats, Legends also seems to be following through with going full camp and Time Idiots from S2. Supergirl and Flash is a little more hard to tell, but Supergirl has a firmer foundation to build around. Flash needs to do a lot to really get shore up some of its flaws from the last season.

I don't watch Legends because it's garbage but a guy in the TV thread seemed to think the premiere was insanely bad.

Legends is 100% not high art and wont win awards for its drama. However, it's definitely tongue in cheek and quite fun in contrast to the relative seriousness of the other DCCW series. It's firmly an action comedy and after season 1, gave up any illusions about any significant amounts of serious relationship drama and instead promoted more general camaraderie. It's a bit of a junk food-esque sort of series.

Do Oliver and Thea still have their Queen Industries money? I thought there was a bit in season two or thereabouts where Thea has to sign some sort of memorandum to let them retain their assets and refuses.

The characters have exactly as much money as the plot needs them to have at any time. If they need to buy a new lair and fill it full of fancy equipment then they can. If they need to be out of cash then they will be. And the writers neither know nor care how any facet of business or finance works.

I don't watch Legends because it's garbage but a guy in the TV thread seemed to think the premiere was insanely bad.

It was the same as last season, ie. great. After the disastrous first season they actually learned their lesson and let the show's strengths work for it instead of constantly fighting them. Unlike the other three shows which constantly seem to be struggling with themselves over what they're supposed to be.